Marrugeku’s Bhenji Ra, Emmanuel James Brown, Miranda Wheen, Zachary Lopez, Chandler Connell, Feras Shaheen, Issa el Assaad, Luke Currie-Richardson & Ses Bero in Jurrungu Ngan-ga in a scene from Jurrungu Ngan-ga.
MARRUGEKU is turning the spotlight on Australia’s approach to locking people up, in a visceral, turbo-charged new dance work. Called Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk], the new creation “examines the common thread that connects outrageous levels of Indigenous incarceration to the indefinite detaining of asylum seekers”.
Three years in development between Marrugeku’s twin homes of Broome and Sydney, this dance theatre creation is inspired by perspectives on incarceration shared by Yawuru leader Senator Patrick Dodson, Kurdish-Iranian writer and former Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani and philosopher Omid Tofighian.
Marrugeku Co-Artistic Directors Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain say that Jurrungu Ngan-ga…